a given weight of powder will occupy, depending on fineness of grinding. Therefore it is best to use powder just as it comes from the mill to determine this volume before ordering the cartons.

as

A very effective and inexpensive method of filling the cartons is to make a number of tin boxes, open on one end, of proper size to just slip inside the carton and deep enough to contain the required volume of powder. These tins are to be closely packed side by side on a tray as large can be conveniently handled. The powder can be spread on the open top of the tins and levelled off with a shovel or hand-scoop. One minute's work will fill a whole tray of tins. The tray is then placed on the packing-table, where the packers take the tins one by one, slip a carton over the open top and turn upside down, leaving exactly the right quantity of powder in each carton, and place the empty tin on a new tray ready for refilling.

Continuous Method. The manufacture of soap-powder on a large scale permits of the fullest opportunity for the introduction of labor- and time-saving devices. The use of an automatic weighingmachine, attached to the soap-powder bin which receives the ground powder from the mill, allows of the discharge of a uniformly regulated amount of powder into the carton or shell. From the crushing of the coarse powder by the disintegrator to the completion of the process the operation as previously described and illustrated is continuous. There is in use where the volume of manufacture permits a device or an arrangement of devices which makes the manufacture of soap-powder an uninterrupted process from the soapkettle to the pasted package. This arrangement consists essentially of a specially constructed crutcher for mixing the ingredients, a mechanism for cooling, drying, and reducing to a coarse form the material which on a smaller scale of manufacture is framed, cooled, stripped, cut into slabs, dried and disintegrated, a grinding-mill, automatic weighing-machines, belt conveyor for filled packages, and their pasting and packing in cases by specialized labor.

CHAPTER XI.

COTTONSEED-MEAL AND COTTONSEED-HULLS FOR CATTLEFOOD AND FERTILIZER.

Comparative Value of Cottonseed and Corn. Cottonseed-meal. Cottonseedhulls. Comparative Value of Cottonseed-meal and Seed. Value of Seed and Meal for Feed. Cottonseed Products for Hogs and Calves. Toxic Principles. Cottonseed Products for Milk. Rations for Beef. Rations for Milk and Butter. Comparison of Concentrated Feeds. Cottonseed and Meal as Fertilizers. Value of Cottonseed on the Farm. Some Fertilizer History.

Comparative Value of Cottonseed and Corn.-The value of cottonseed for feeding purposes is not so fully understood and appreciated as the feeding value of its products, meal and hulls. They are not so readily eaten as their products are, especially meal. They are known, however, to be a valuable feeding-stuff. Experiments demonstrate that in feeding value they are fully equivalent to that of corn. From experiments made at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, I pound of cottonseed-meal was found to be equal in feeding value, i.e., beef-producing value, to 1.21 pounds of corn. Similar experiments at the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station demonstrated that I pound of cottonseed was equal to 1.06 pounds of corn- and cob-meal. The average of these two results indicates that I pound of cottonseed equals 1 to 1.13 pounds of corn-meal.* This means that I ton of cottonseed is worth as much for producing growth in beef cattle as 1.13 tons of corn or corn-meal, and that when corn is worth 40 cents per bushel ($14.20 per ton) cottonseed are worth $16.00, or 24.2 cents per bushel 30 pounds. And with corn at 80 cents per bushel, cottonseed worth as feed $32.00 per ton, or 48.4 cents per bushel.

Com. of Agr., North Carolina, 1903.

The comparative amounts of proximate constituents in cottonseed and corn-meal are shown by the following analyses:

Cottonseed-meal. The superior value of cottonseed-meal as feed for cattle and sheep is shown by the fact that more than onehalf of the output of meal is exported to foreign countries for this purpose. The remainder is divided between local consumption for feed and fertilizer and Northern consumption for dairying and feeding. As a concentrated feed it has no equal for beef cattle and dairy cows. When compared with corn and corn-meal in feeding experiments with milch-cows, it is shown to produce more milk and butter than equivalent weights of corn or corn-meal, and than generally greater weights of wheat bran and linseed-meal. This comparison likewise holds in its value for fattening beef cattle. Feeding experiments with beef cattle conducted at experiment stations in Texas, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania show that I pound of cottonseed-meal produced in the same rations as much beef as 1.34 to 2 pounds of corn-meal, the average being 1 pound of cottonseed-meal to 1.73 pounds of corn-meal.

Cottonseed-meal is a very rich concentrated feed, which cannot be fed alone and must be fed with care and judgment in all cases. With coarse, bulky feeds like cottonseed-hulls, the grasshays, and the corn plant, whether shredded or cut, meal makes most excellent rations. For fattening steers, three to four pounds. of meal per day are given at first, and all the hulls, hay, or corn fodder that the animal will eat without waste. The quantity of meal is increased gradually to six, eight, and ten pounds per animal per day, with hulls, hay, or corn fodder, or all, as before. The best proportions of. meal and hulls, as indicated by a great many experiments, are one pound of meal to three to four pounds of hulls

after the feeding is well in progress and the animals have become accustomed to the diet.

Cottonseed - hulls.-The hulls from the seed were formerly much used for fuel for running the engines at the oil-mills, and may occasionally be used for that purpose yet; but the main demand for them is for feeding beef cattle, cows, and sheep, a demand to which the supply is not equal. It is becoming the rule for cattle to be fattened for beef at or near the mills in the South during the winter on hulls and meal.

The value of a feed depends on its composition, digestibility, and palatability. The palatability of hulls is shown by the fact that animals eat them readily and with relish. The chemical analysis of hulls, and their actual digestibility (solubility in the animal juices), as determined by a number of experiments with cattle and sheep, show them to be worth from one-half to twothirds as much as the ordinary grass-hays. In composition they are similar to the grass-hays, but only one-half to two-thirds as much of them are actually used by the animal as of the hays. They make a very coarse, bulky feed; but a certain amount of bulk is necessary in feeding cattle and sheep, and hulls are extremely handy and convenient for diluting cottonseed-meal, which is too rich and concentrated for feeding alone. The price paid for hulls is governed by the cost of good hays.

Comparative Value of Cottonseed-meal and Seed. The average of results obtained in feeding experiments conducted at the Texas and Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Stations shows that I pound of cottonseed-meal produced as much beef as 1.47 pounds of cottonseed. Comparative feeding values of corn, cottonseed, and cottonseed-meal obtained by experiment on beef cattle represent average results that may be expected with good feeding under good conditions. The feeding value of any stuff is comparative, and its price will fluctuate with that of the standard feed used for comparison with the price of the products into which it is converted. If I ton of cottonseed-meal will produce a growth equivalent to that produced by 1.47 tons of cottonseed, and cottonseed-meal is worth $25.00 per ton, cottonseed for the same purpose are worth $16.66 per ton or 25 cents per bushel.

The relation of cottonseed and cottonseed-meal from the standpoint of their value as stock feed and fertilizer, and the relation of the farmer, as producer of cottonseed and consumer of its nonoleaginous ingredients, to the cottonseed-oil miller, whose chief product is the oil, are tersely expressed by The Southern Farm as follows:

"One ton (2000 lbs.) cottonseed contains

Of nitrogen....

61 lbs.

Of phosphoric acid. . .

Of potash...

One ton (2000 lbs.) cottonseed-meal contains

Of nitrogen.

Of phosphoric acid..

Of potash..

Allowing that the farmer carries his seed to the mill and gives the oil as toll, he should carry back with him the resulting product, in meal about 750 pounds, and about 900 pounds of hulls.

"It is a common question whether this is a profitable exchange for the farmer.

"It is an accepted fact that the oil has no value as a cattle-food. "But undoubtedly a farmer can feed more economically in using meal and hulls than in feeding merely the raw seed.

"In exchanging the seed for the meal the farmer does not dispose of any of the valuable elements-nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. The 750 pounds of meal contains within a small fraction all the nitrogen that was in the ton of seed.

"What price, then, should cottonseed command when cottonseedmeal is held at $16.00 per ton?

The 750 lbs. of meal from the ton of seed, at 75c. per 100 lbs., is $6.00 Add 900 lbs. of hull from this ton of seed, at 15c. per 100 lbs..

Cash value of the ton of seed...............

1.35

$6.97

"At these relative values the mill would get the product of oil (30 or 35 gallons) to pay for the cost of grinding. At 20c. per gal